Just Keep Gymmin’ – A Guide To Building Your Own Home Gym

It’s January, which means it’s cold, snowing and probably pouring down with rain outside. The last thing that you want to be doing right now is putting your trainers on and pounding the pavement for a run or commuting the sweaty gym that is packed with all the New Year Resolutioners. You may well be daydreaming about what it would be like to have a house big enough to run your own home gym, just for you.

A word of warning before you start doing insane amounts of research and buying up gym products. There have been many people who have bought into the thousands of pounds worth of equipment, even speaking to a personal loan company to be able to afford them all outright. Most of the equipment you would buy into are part of a fad, and the last thing that you need is to be buying into that! Imagine how many other people who wanted to set up home gyms have vibrating plates, treadmills and cross trainers stashed in the garage because they simply got bored. It’s a lot!

Having a gym at home is a brilliant idea if you find the cost and commute to your usual haunt to be an inconvenience, but it’s not for everyone. The motivation and inspiration most people feel when they head to a group class or a gym is big, and the social side of the gym is also something that most people enjoy. If you prefer to workout alone, though, a home gym could be perfect for you! So, how can you create the perfect home gym?

Budget. Before you get started, you need to think about your budget. It doesn’t have to cost you much to set up a gym, but it’s really going to depend on what you want to achieve. If you want an extension with a hard floor and gym equipment, it’s going to cost you more than just a treadmill in the corner of the bedroom.

Equipment. You could buy all the essentials for an effective home gym with no more than £1-2,000, it’s all going to depend on the equipment that you enjoy using and how much you have to spare. You can buy a lot of gym equipment second hand from sites like Gumtree and eBay, and you can really slash the cost of the equipment this way.

Atmosphere. A home gym is about more than just the equipment, though. You need to consider the atmosphere. Installing a music system may be costly, but if it’s going to get you moving, then you need to invest your cash well. You need to be primed for success, so make sure you’ve set up your gym to push you in the way that you need.

You can be as lean as you like just by setting up a gym and sticking to using it. When you’ve put your cash into the home gym, it should be motivation enough to stick to your workouts.